


Experiments in movement of bodies in space, friction and fluid dynamics: a joint research project

by dani_the_girl



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, Science flirting, experimental protocols
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 19:09:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7813708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dani_the_girl/pseuds/dani_the_girl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erin proposes a joint research project and once Holtzmann has clarified the hypothesis, she's more than happy to participate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Experiments in movement of bodies in space, friction and fluid dynamics: a joint research project

**Author's Note:**

> So, when I started this it was going to be lab sex, but apparently I am really soppy about these two dorks and wanted it to be something more? So yeah, it'll get there, but next chapter, I guess!

“Holtzmann?” Erin asked tentatively. Holtz was bent over her workbench, tongue caught between her teeth as she did _something_ to the conduits of the disassembled proton pack in front of her. Erin swallowed her nerves and spoke a little louder: “Holtz? Can you, can you help me with something for a moment.”

“Juuust, one sec,” Holtzmann replied absently, her focus still on the machinery spread out over her workspace. Erin waited, trying to be patient. After all, this probably wouldn’t go well if Holtz left something unfinished and it caught fire part way through. 

Finally, Holtz seemed satisfied with whatever alteration it was she was trying to make and put aside her soldering gun. She pushed her goggles up to mess with her hairline, stripped off the gloves she’d been wearing and perched herself on her stool, looking up at Erin. “OK, what can I do you for?” she asked, with a cheeky grin.

Erin swallowed and resisted the temptation to get distracted by the line. She was almost sure it was deliberate, all the stuff Holtz seemed to come out with around her. Intentional. Almost sure. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, she reminded herself firmly and if she didn’t do something about this one way or another, she was going to go crazy with wondering about it. Plus never get any work done, if the last month of what felt like constant daydreaming and distracted glances was anything to go by. She tugged nervously at the hem of her t-shirt, wondering if she should have waited, dressed up a bit more, before stamping on the thought. Quit procrastinating and get on with it, she told herself. Right. “I want to test something out. And, well, I’m fine with all the theory, but you’re so much better with the practical side and so I thought maybe you could help me out.”

“Sure, I’ve got some free time once I’ve put this back together,” Holtz said, gesturing to the proton gun with a smile. “Let’s talk it over now, I’ll mull over some options while I’m doing this and then we can get down to business in a little while. What’s your hypothesis?”

Now was the time to say it. Erin shut her eyes for a second and took a deep breath. “I think we’d be really good together.” She could feel herself blushing but she held her ground, resisting the temptation to fiddle with her hair or fidget with the things on the workbench.

Holtzmann raised her eyebrows. “Huh. That is… not what I was expecting you to say, that’s for sure.”

“You don’t think so?” Erin asked, trying to keep the anxiety out of her voice. She wasn’t at all sure of what to make of Holtz’s response. She’d expected somehow that either she’d get the brush off or Holtz would come out with some lascivious line, maybe even just come around the bench and kiss her right away (OK, maybe not so much _expected_ as fantasised about). She hadn’t expected her to sound… thoughtful.

“Let’s say I have some implementation concerns,” Holtz said. She unhooked her goggles from her ears and laid them to one side, pulling more strands of hair out of her straggly bun as she did so. “But your hypothesis intrigues me, Dr Gilbert.” She propped her elbows on the table, perching her chin on her fists, leaning forward intently. “Tell me, what observational evidence can you cite that led you to form this theory?”

“Well…” Erin started and then paused, trying to think what she could say that wouldn’t be too embarrassing. Holtzmann’s smile seemed to widen every second she stalled and she could feel herself going redder. Why had she started this again? “you have lovely hands. I watch them when you’re working sometimes.”

“Hadn’t noticed,” Holtz smirked.

“And you make me laugh a lot. And you smile so much and it looks really good on you. And….” She paused again, wondering how she could explain what she wanted to say.

“And?” Holtz prompted, looking curious.

“You’re so… you. Like, all the time. And I feel most like you like me when I’m just being me and I really like that.” Sometimes, when Erin looked back on her life up to this point from where she is now, she felt like so much of it seemed to belong to a stranger. Where was her self-respect, her self-confidence, all that time? At least, she thought, even if Holtz did shoot her down, she’d expressed something of her sense that Holtz wanted to see _her_. Not someone manufactured, put together, playing a part, but really her.

“Interesting,” Holtz drawled, one eyebrow lifting again. “So, just to clarify this hypothesis of yours, when you say ‘good together’, you’re maybe talking about more of a longer term thing than just steaming hot monkey sex?”

“Holtz!” Erin exclaimed, trying not to burst out laughing.

“No, but it’s important if I’m going to design the right sort of tests to give us useful data to resolve this question!” Holtz declared with an impish grin.

“I thought you had implementation concerns though?” Erin asked cautiously. 

“True,” Holtz agreed, switching back to a serious expression with barely a blink. “For example, would we be publishing the results of this study?”

Erin wanted to laugh again, but Holtz’s expression seemed to suggest that it was at least a somewhat serious question. “Of course. I mean,” she added, cautiously, “as long as you were ok with that.”

“I’m not much of a one for confidentiality agreements,” Holtz said with a one-shouldered shrug. She broke her pose and took one of Erin’s hands in her own, interlacing their fingers, looking down at them. “OK, I’m going to maybe drop the extended metaphor here, because if I ask you about control groups, I think you’re going to take it the wrong way, but is this… when you say experimentation, are we talking ‘I wonder what it’s like to be with a woman’ experimentation or ‘maybe we want to try getting a little bit physical and seeing where it takes us’ experimentation?”

“I thought we just said we weren’t just talking about hot monkey sex?” Erin asked with a smile.

“I said that,” Holtz pointed out, looking up at Erin through her lashes and Erin wondered if the unfamiliar expression on Holtz’s face was what the other woman looked like when she was actually nervous.

“Oh,” she paused, replaying the conversation in her head. “I suppose that’s true. Well, I did run a series of preliminary studies in grad school, but I’ve been working in academic theoretical physics for a while so opportunities for follow up work have been limited.” Limited to non-existent, she thought ruefully and her occasional relationships with her male colleagues had tended to fizzle out pretty quickly when they realised that she wasn’t planning to give up her own career to support theirs, keep house and bring up kids. She hadn’t really thought about how isolated she’d become until stepping into Holtz and Abby’s lab that day but now, she felt like what the four of them had found together had made her greedy, like finally finding the kind of friendship and camaraderie she’d assumed just wasn’t out there for people like her was making her question her assumptions about what other things she could get if she really went for it. “I want to try out the whole thing,” she confessed. “You know, getting breakfast together and snuggling up for film nights and, oh, I don’t know, everything, not _just_ bedroom stuff.”

Holtz’s smile looked like it could light a city block and she came out from behind her workbench, tugging Erin close with their joined hands until they were standing right in front of each other, not quite touching. "You are just full of surprises, Dr Gilbert," Holtz murmured and Erin would have been distracted by wondering how it was that Holtzmann seemed to manage to make her formal title sound sexy except that Holtz had reached up her other hand to Erin's hair and tugged her forward into a kiss.

Their conversation had been nothing like Erin had imagined it when she’d tried to plan it out ahead of time, but kissing Holtz was every bit as good as she’d fantasised it might be. Holtz seemed to approach it the way she did everything, with full force and no safety lights, already licking her way between Erin’s parted lips and letting go Erin’s hand to trace her fingers lightly over Erin’s waist, just slipping her fingers under the hem of Erin’s t-shirt to rest on the bare skin above her waistband.

After what felt like minutes, they came up for air. Holtz’s hair was coming out her bun on one side where Erin had started to twine her fingers through it and Erin’s t-shirt was now definitely riding up, leaving a strip of skin exposed to the cool air of the lab. She rested her hands on Holtz’s shoulders and contemplated the buttons of her waistcoat.

“Well, Dr Gilbert,” Holtz said, and Erin wondered if she was going to develop a really inappropriate response to her own full name, “your proposal for a research project is approved. So I guess the question is, where do you want to start?” Erin let her fingers slide down the seam of Holtz’s waistcoat, smoothing it over her breasts until she reached the top button, watching Holtz’s eyelids flicker closed just for a second, enjoying the hitch she could hear in her breathing. “Excellent,” Holtz breathed, and then reached up to cover Erin’s hands with her own, glancing regretfully at the table behind her. “OK, we can go now, but Abby’s pack won’t be fully operational without another twenty minutes of work, half an hour, tops, and I would really like to get you somewhere there’s no chance of someone walking in on us.”

Erin took a deep breath. Half an hour. They were responsible Ghostbusters, she reminded herself firmly. “Right, ok, half an hour. I’ll just, I can read for half an hour. That’s fine.” She let go of Holtz’s top button and curled her fingers over the smooth edges of the waistcoat, feeling the silk lining and pulled Holtz forward into another kiss, quick and sloppy before stepping back, letting her hands drop. “Half an hour. OK. Work fast.”

“Right,” Holtz agreed, with a heated look, “and once that’s done, we can make a start on the experimental phase.”


End file.
